Thursday, December 20, 2007

quasimodal shift


The above image is from SourceGear's Vault. It demonstrates a bad use of modes within software because it forces users to remember something they shouldn't have to, if they want to hide this dialog most of the time.
They have to remember that when they select the option which (can/used to) display this dailog they have to press a button if they want more advanced options.

Better would be to hide this dialog and perform the operation based on the default/previously selected option, unless the Shift key (or any other predesiganted key is pressed). This way the functionality is stil available to all and no one needs to remember anything. (A note explaining this feature could be put on the form, rather than the above checkbox and label.)
This is an example of a Quasimode.

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